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I have never understood this 'sleep tracking' gimmick. When I wake up I know how well I slept or didn't sleep. I can't see myself checking a graph on my watch a

by srwx 11y ago

I have never understood this 'sleep tracking' gimmick. When I wake up I know how well I slept or didn't sleep. I can't see myself checking a graph on my watch after waking up feeling like crap and going "oh my watch says I slept fine. I must be wrong." or vise versa. It's about as useful as weather reports on the evening news that tell me what the weather was for the day - I know what the weather was, I was there.

mladenkovacevic 11y ago
I don't think I agree. I frequently go to bed much later than I should and can function on very little sleep. But it's bad for me and probably makes me age much faster. A visualization of how much sleep I'm lacking in order to satisfy some basic sleep requirement would help towards alerting me to go bed earlier. Also if I'm doing something to improve my quality of sleep (meditation, no digital devices an hour before sleep) it is rewarding to see that I'm sleeping longer and deeper. Your reasoning can also be used to dismiss exercise tracking. You just exercised and you know you feel like you put in sufficient work. What's the point of knowing if you "competed a circle"?
- srwx 11y ago
  As it happens I don't track my exercising either, I go to gym and do exercises simply because I know it's good for me and that as an IT worker my job is too sedentary. Maybe if I was working towards a competitive goal (run a marathon or do a triathlon) I would track as iterative improvement would be necessary but I'm not so I don't. Equally I don't have competitive goals for my sleep cycles.
  - mladenkovacevic 11y ago
    I agree with you in principle but as someone with bad habits (not getting enough sleep) I think the watch can help as a guide to change those habits and live a healthier and longer life. For whatever it's worth, there are some studies that suggest that even if you work out every day, sitting for a consecutive 8 hours a day will still shorten your lifespan. So a watch might remind you that you've been sitting to long and to take a 5 minute stroll.
    - clarky07 11y ago
      fwiw, Apple watch does actually remind you to stand up and walk around once an hour if you haven't. I've actually found it a nice reminder. I can tell when i get the buzz that yeah i've been sitting too long I should get up and walk around.
yellowapple 11y ago
The point is that the 'gimmick' in question is meant not only to tell you whether or not you slept well, but also to tell you why you didn't sleep well. I don't know how well this works in practice, but I know that's the primary purpose of similar functionality in Sleep Number mattresses ("You didn't seem to sleep well; you should bump your number up to 63 and raise the back about 2 degrees more"), and I figure it would be the same with a smartwatch counterpart (though probably with less precision; it can detect the tossing and turning, but probably can't detect pressure points the way a smartmattress theoretically can).

by srwx 11y ago

mladenkovacevic 11y ago

I don't think I agree. I frequently go to bed much later than I should and can function on very little sleep. But it's bad for me and probably makes me age much faster. A visualization of how much sleep I'm lacking in order to satisfy some basic sleep requirement would help towards alerting me to go bed earlier. Also if I'm doing something to improve my quality of sleep (meditation, no digital devices an hour before sleep) it is rewarding to see that I'm sleeping longer and deeper. Your reasoning can also be used to dismiss exercise tracking. You just exercised and you know you feel like you put in sufficient work. What's the point of knowing if you "competed a circle"?

srwx 11y ago
As it happens I don't track my exercising either, I go to gym and do exercises simply because I know it's good for me and that as an IT worker my job is too sedentary. Maybe if I was working towards a competitive goal (run a marathon or do a triathlon) I would track as iterative improvement would be necessary but I'm not so I don't. Equally I don't have competitive goals for my sleep cycles.
- mladenkovacevic 11y ago
  I agree with you in principle but as someone with bad habits (not getting enough sleep) I think the watch can help as a guide to change those habits and live a healthier and longer life. For whatever it's worth, there are some studies that suggest that even if you work out every day, sitting for a consecutive 8 hours a day will still shorten your lifespan. So a watch might remind you that you've been sitting to long and to take a 5 minute stroll.
  - clarky07 11y ago
    fwiw, Apple watch does actually remind you to stand up and walk around once an hour if you haven't. I've actually found it a nice reminder. I can tell when i get the buzz that yeah i've been sitting too long I should get up and walk around.

yellowapple 11y ago

The point is that the 'gimmick' in question is meant not only to tell you whether or not you slept well, but also to tell you why you didn't sleep well. I don't know how well this works in practice, but I know that's the primary purpose of similar functionality in Sleep Number mattresses ("You didn't seem to sleep well; you should bump your number up to 63 and raise the back about 2 degrees more"), and I figure it would be the same with a smartwatch counterpart (though probably with less precision; it can detect the tossing and turning, but probably can't detect pressure points the way a smartmattress theoretically can).